


Chase on Pasaana

by ceridwen_2020



Series: Early ideas for a re-imagining of the Rise of Skywalker [6]
Category: Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Canon-Typical Violence, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-23
Updated: 2020-11-23
Packaged: 2021-03-09 22:09:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,729
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27683353
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ceridwen_2020/pseuds/ceridwen_2020
Summary: Luke's journal, which Rey found on Ahch-To, points to the existence of a holocron that will lead the Resistance to Exegol, a planet of dark forces that threatens the stability of the galaxy. Rey and her friends travel to Pasaana to take up Luke's search for Ochi of Bestoon. After meeting with Lando, they are given the last location that Luke travelled to before he gave up his mission. After a speeder chase, Rey discovers she can use the Force to heal others and there is an encounter with Kylo Ren and his knights.A re-imagining of the scenes on Pasaana and finding Ochi's ship. In this version, the Resistance know about Rey's connection with Kylo Ren and Finn is training to be a Jedi with Rey.
Relationships: Poe Dameron & Finn & Rey & Rose Tico, Rey & Ben Solo | Kylo Ren, Rey/Ben Solo | Kylo Ren
Series: Early ideas for a re-imagining of the Rise of Skywalker [6]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2024378
Kudos: 1





	Chase on Pasaana

Outside, in a secluded spot behind a large marquee, Poe plugged the data stick from Lando into BB8. After a few frantic bleepings, BB8 projected a series of co-ordinates onto the surrounding desert, indicating a location fifteen points by one hundred and three points north-north-east.  
‘Out in the desert, huh?’ said Poe, patting BB8’s metal exterior. Looking around to the others he pointed to a large expanse of sand that stretched out towards the horizon, bordered on either side by towering cliffs. ‘It’s out that way.’  
‘Well we can’t go in the Falcon,’ said Finn dismally, peeking out around the side of the tent towards the festival site, ‘everywhere is crawling with First Order troopers.’  
‘Thanks to our hot-blooded Jedi Rey,’ complained Poe, earning himself a glare from the young woman.  
‘We need a Plan B,’ said Rose, her mind racing with possibilities. ‘But what?’  
‘We need a speeder,’ said Finn, inspired by some he saw resting not far away, alone and unguarded. ‘Over there.’  
They crowded round Finn to get a better look. The speeders were old and rusty, but were simple enough to use, with a central steering pole and brake.  
‘We’ll need two of them,’ Rey pointed out.  
‘Me and Finn will take that one, you and Rose take the other one,’ commanded Poe, ‘and grab a droid each.’  
‘We’ll have to hotwire them,’ said Rose as they sneaked across to the speeders, first making sure the owners were nowhere near.  
‘The electronics seem simple enough,’ agreed Rey, pulling open the panel and peering inside.  
Over at the other speeder, Poe had pulled off the panel and was already trying to look for the right connection. ‘Give me a hand,’ he said to Finn, holding out a wire, ‘hold this?’  
‘Where did you learn to do this?’ frowned Finn, looking nervously around in case the owners spotted them. There was a group of locals standing talking at the front of the tent and they were making him jittery.  
‘You pick all sorts of things up in the Resistance,’ Poe grinned disarmingly then yelped happily as the connection took and the speeder roared to life. ‘Done it!’ He looked over to where Rose and Rey were already on their speeder, ‘Hurry up!’ grinned Rose.  
‘Yeah, right.’ Just as Finn had helped C3PO onto the speeder, the locals suddenly noticed what was happening to their speeders. Gesticulating wildly, they tried to stop them but it was too late and both blasted off into the desert.  
They sped along the trackway, trying to keep out of the way of the crowds. Rey found that the speeder’s mechanisms were not as smooth as she would have liked, and there was some delay in movement, leading to a few hare-raising moments as revellers failed to get out of the way. Yet as she relaxed and allowed the Force to guide her, she found that the speeder became more fluid, more responsive to her.  
‘Uh oh,’ Rose spotted First Order troops up on a high plateau, ‘they’ve spotted us!’  
‘Damn, they’re fast,’ complained Poe, who had also spotted several speeders being launched, carrying two stormtroopers each. Their speeders were larger and faster and were soon gaining on them.  
‘Try and lose them,’ shouted Finn above the whine of the engine, ‘they’ve got rocket launchers!’ Taking out his blaster, he took a few pot shots at the stormtroopers but it was difficult with the speeder weaving all over the place. On the other speeder, Rose was doing the same whilst Rey concentrated on keeping them in a straight line.  
‘We’ll head out into the desert,’ yelled Finn, hoping that Rey would know to follow them. Suddenly the ground exploded around them as one of the rockets made a direct hit behind them, covering them in dirt and dust. Coughing, Poe managed to steer the speeder into a canyon, hoping that the narrow confines would provide some opportunities to lose their pursuers, and also make it more difficult for the troopers to launch their rockets without blowing themselves up.  
But they still had blasters. ‘Ow!’ Poe yelped as a well-aimed laser hit his arm, burning the skin and flooding his body with pain.  
‘Are you alright?’ Finn shouted with concern, trying to keep upright as the speeder twisted and turned in the narrow walls of the canyon.  
‘I’ll live!’ Poe yelled back, gritting his teeth to ignore the pain, ‘you concentrate on taking out that speeder!’  
It was taking all of Finn’s efforts to concentrate on holding on but then he remembered what Rey had told him about the Force. He needed to relax, be calm, to let the Force guide him. Closing his eyes, he breathed deeply, took aim with his blaster and fired. Hearing a thud from the speeder behind, he opened his eyes to see that he had managed to hit the pilot of the speeder behind them square in the chest. Out of control, the speeder crashed into the side of the canyon, exploding in a blaze of hot sparks and metal fragments. This caught the stormtroopers on the speeder behind off guard and the pilot instinctively put his hands up to protect his face, before their speeder too crashed into the canyon wall.  
Free of their pursuers, Poe and Finn celebrated nosily, even Threepio allowed himself a victory cheer. As they emerged from the canyon into another wide flat plain, indistinguishable from the other, it was only then that they realised Rey and Rose were nowhere to be seen. 

When Finn and Poe had disappeared into the canyon, Rey had been unable to follow them without making an impossible manoeuvre, even for her, and their speeder had been forced to continue out onto the open plain. Two speeders were following them doggedly, and Rose was finding it hard to take clear shots as Rey dodged and weaved to prevent the First Order from launching their rockets. Rey was doing her best to help but once they got into the plains she needed to concentrate, pushing the speeder closer towards the cliffs in an effort to either lose their pursuers or force them in too close to the high walls.  
‘It’s going to get bumpy,’ she yelled to Rose and BB8, who was doing his best to hold on.  
‘Okay!’ Rose shouted back, taking another shot at the speeder behind them - this time she managed to hit the pilot in the helmet, distracting him. Grabbing his helmet, the pilot let go of the controls and the speeder spun out of control, crashing into the side of the cliffs.  
‘One down, one to go,’ shouted Rose, aiming her blaster again but this time nothing happened, ‘It’s jammed! Dammit,’ Rose tried to flick the switch but it had got too hot and she couldn’t shift it.  
‘Take mine,’ suggested Rey, seeing a canyon opening up between the cliffs - pushing the pole around, she steered the speeder in a drunken curve, crouching down as a rocket flew over their heads - finally the stormtroopers had launched it but Rey’s turn saved them just in time. It crashed into the desert floor, exploding in a huge cloud of dust.  
‘That was close!’ shouted Rose, finally managing to work Rey’s blaster loose from her belt. Taking aim, she fired at the pursuing speeder’s wheels. It turned out Rey’s blaster was much more powerful than her own, and the laser slammed into the tyres, blowing them apart. Out of control, the speeder spun round and round before crashing into the desert floor, killing both stormtroopers instantly.  
‘Wow,’ said Rose admirably to Rey over the whine of the engine, ‘where did you get this?’  
‘Han Solo,’ said Rey, manoeuvring the speeder expertly through the winding path of the canyon - at the same time she was reaching out with her feelings, trying to find the whispers of their friends on the Force… there, she recognised Finn. ‘I know where the others are,’ she shouted to Rose.  
‘You do? How?’ All Rose could see was characterless canyon walls surrounding them, making it difficult to see what was ahead, or behind.  
‘Trust me,’ Rey said, Just another corner and then… they were out of the canyon into another wide flat plain surrounding a large mesa, bounded either side by steep escarpments. Scanning the plain, Rey looked for the other speeder, ‘There they are!’ she shouted, spying their friends at the far side of the plain, sheltering under one of the cliffs.  
Rose was astounded, ‘How did you do that?’  
‘The Force,’ said Rey simply, pushing the speeder over towards where their friends were waiting. Finn was waving urgently at them. Her face fell, ‘Something’s wrong.’  
Rey slowed the speeder down and it came to a halt gracefully next to the cliffs. Jumping down, she ran over to where Finn was sitting with Poe, who was slumped against the side of the speeder, his face deathly pale, Rose following close behind.  
‘Oh, Mistress Rey,’ said Threepio sadly, ‘poor Master Poe is injured.’  
Flinging herself onto her knees, Rey looked at Poe. ‘What happened?’  
‘He was shot in the arm,’ explained Finn. Poe could hardly move, weak from loss of blood. Finn had tried wrapping one of the scarfs over the wound but it was already saturated with blood.  
‘It’s okay, I can heal you,’ said Rey gently, taking off her bag and laying it down on the ground next to her.  
‘You can?’ Poe’s voice was hardly a whisper, his mouth was dry and his lips cracked.  
‘Trust me,’ she smiled. Carefully she unwrapped the scarf, revealing the nasty looking hole in Poe’s arm. Then, taking her hand, she laid it gently on the wound, ignoring the blood that dribbled up from around the edges. Poe winced and Rey told him to close his eyes. Then she concentrated hard, imagining the wound healing up, the cells knitting back together, the blood restoring itself and the skin repairing.  
‘What?’ Finn and Rose could hardly believe their eyes as Poe’s wound began to heal itself, slowly at first but then rapidly. Soon there was no evidence that Poe had even been hurt.  
With a gasp, Poe opened his eyes. ‘What happened?’  
Exhausted by the effort, Rey sat back on her heels. ‘It’s all healed.’  
‘Look what you did!’ said Finn in amazement.  
Looking at his arm, Poe could hardly believe it. ‘How is that even possible?’  
‘The power of the Force,’ said Rey simply, ‘I didn’t know I could do it.’  
‘So how did you know?’  
‘I read about it. In a book.’  
Poe rolled his eyes but he was very grateful, looking at Rey with a newfound respect. ‘How does it even work?’  
‘I transferred some of my life force into you,’ said Rey with a slight smile, ‘so now you have a tiny part of me in you.’  
‘Cool,’ said Poe uncertainly, ‘I think.’  
Now that Poe’s arm had been fixed, it was time to work out where they were. BB8 rescanned the area based on the co-ordinates: as soon as the little droid projected them, it bleeped with excitement.  
‘Close by?’ Rey stood up and looked around. They were stood in the shadow of the towering, steep cliffs that formed the mesa above them. The cliffs were ragged and rough, with scrubland growing towards the bottom, interspersed with piles of rock fallen down from above. To the other side was a large flat plain of sand and dirt, with very little vegetation except for dry looking shrubs. As Rey stared at the desert, she saw an image in her mind of a ship, careening down towards the plain, its engines on fire. Closing her eyes, she watched as the ship crashed into the plain, sending dirt and sand high into the air, half burying it. ‘What if Luke couldn’t find the ship because it was buried?’ Rey murmured to herself. Opening her eyes, she saw her friends staring at her. ‘What?’  
‘Something about Luke being buried?’ Finn looked at her incredulously.  
‘Not Luke, the ship.’ Rey had a realisation, ‘It must be still out there, buried in the sand.’ Grabbing her bag, she ran out of the shadow of the cliffs and onto the plain, looking for any clues as to the whereabouts of Ochi’s ship.  
‘How does she know all this?’ frowned Poe, he was beginning to wonder if the Force would send someone mad if they listened to it too much.  
‘The Force, it tells you things,’ explained Finn, pushing Poe after Rey, ‘gives you visions of the past, and the future.’  
‘You too?’ Poe asked him as they hurried after Rey, followed by Rose and the two droids.  
‘Sometimes,’ said Finn, ‘it’s more of a feeling about things - Rey’s far more advanced than I am.’ They watched as Rey dropped to the ground and started digging into the sand, ‘Now what is she doing?’ Poe ran over to Rey, her nails were already filthy with dirt - she had found something and was trying to uncover it.  
‘Help me!’ she grunted, looking up at Poe. ‘There’s something here, under the sand - look.’  
There was a darker patch on the ground where no vegetation was growing, the sand was a slightly different shade to the surrounding dirt, as if there was a shadow lying on it. When Poe stepped back, he did think that the shape was large enough to be a substantial ship.  
‘We’re never going to dig this out,’ he said, looking to Finn and Rose for their agreement, ‘it’s too big, Rey.’  
‘I’m not going to dig it out,’ said Rey grumpily, finally uncovering what looked like the top of an antennae support. ‘I just needed something to visualise.’  
‘What is she going on about?’ Poe asked Finn.  
‘I don’t know,’ Finn had to admit. But Rey had a determined look on her face, clearly something was going on inside her head. Standing up, Rey looked at Finn, ‘I’m going to need your help.’  
‘To do what?’  
‘Help me lift this ship out of the sand.’  
For the second time that day, Poe wondered if he was hearing things. ‘Say what?’  
‘We’re going to lift the ship out of the sand.’ She gestured at Poe and Rose, ‘you might want to move out of the way. Get on top of the plateau.’ She pointed to the cliffs next to them.  
‘Why?’  
‘Because that’s where we need to put the ship,’ explained Rey, patiently, ‘in case the sands start to collapse.’  
‘Ah, yes,’ Rose dragged Poe over to the cliffs, they would need to start climbing.  
‘What do you want me to do?’ asked Finn, nervously, worried about being pulled into the sands, considering what had happened when he landed on Jakku.  
‘We need to visualise the ship rising out of the sand,’ explained Rey, ‘like we did when we lifted those rocks in the forest.’  
‘But those were rocks - this is a ship!’  
‘It’s not that different,’ said Rey reassuringly, ‘trust me. Remember what we did? We just do it on a larger scale.’  
‘Okay.’ Taking her lead, Finn positioned himself on the opposite side of the darkened area and closed his eyes. Slowly he raised his hand out in front of him, tapping into the energy field that surrounded him, trying to feel the energy of the ship hidden down below. For a while nothing seemed to happen but then he felt something pull on his mind - he could sense something heavy, below the surface of the sand. The ship…  
‘It’s coming!’ he heard an excited Poe shout. He and Rose were peering down from the top of the plateau.  
‘Concentrate!’ he heard Rey say and he re-focused his mind, trying to feel the dimensions of the ship beneath him, imagining it rising up and coming to rest on the sand in front of them. The pull on his mind was getting heavier and heavier, something was struggling to move, to break free of the sand it was trapped in… it pulled and it pulled and it pulled and it… suddenly he felt a breaking free and the weight on his mind started to lift.  
‘You’ve done it!’ Poe sounded ecstatic.  
Daring to open his eyes, Finn saw what Poe and Rose were already celebrating - a large ship, sand running off it in huge streams, was floating in the air, held up by he and Rey’s combined efforts. Well, it was mostly Rey’s effort - she looked tense, straining to keep the ship in the air. Slowly, she moved the ship far away from the large hole from which it had been dragged out of, lifting it up into the air and, finally, bringing it down to rest on the top of the plateau.  
Exhausted, Rey dropped to her knees whilst Rose and Poe ran over to the ship, eager to see if the door controls still worked.  
‘Here,’ Finn offered Rey his hand. ‘That was incredible,’ he said, breathless with excitement, ‘I thought healing Poe was amazing but that… wow.’ It made him realise how important the Jedi must have been, to have this great power bestowed upon them. But with it came great responsibility. Kylo Ren was a clear example of what happened when Force powers could be harnessed for evil.  
They easily climbed up the cliffs to the top of the plateau, and found that their friends had got Ochi’s ship to open up after some tinkering with the controls. Inside, everything was covered in sand but was remarkably intact; preserved by being hidden underneath the desert plains, it had not been looted by thieves or by scavengers. Even Ochi’s skeleton, sitting in the pilot’s chair, retained its hair and clothes, although the skin had long vanished, leaving only bones.  
‘Oh, hi Ochi,’ said Poe conversationally, peering past the skeleton to look at the console. ‘It looks pretty straightforward. If the fuel cells have survived, we should be able to get them up and running fairly quickly.’  
‘I’ll check that,’ said Rose helpfully, heading towards the back of the ship where she expected to find them.  
Whilst Poe and Finn looked at the console for signs of damage, Rey investigated the hold of the ship. Ochi had been extremely tidy; everything was stowed away carefully in cupboards and drawers. Inside, she found food rations, two evil-looking weapons, including a knife carved with strange symbols, and two message cubes. Picking the cubes up, upon closer inspection she found that only one of them worked. Switching it on, she watched as a small hologram appeared of a dark cloaked figure. The figure spoke but in a language she did not recognise, although it was reminiscent of the message that Rose had intercepted back at base. Looking for Threepio, she found him in the cockpit, examining the mainframe and trying to make sense of the ship’s computer.  
‘The fuel cells were working then?’ Lights were scattered across the console, a mixture of blue and red.  
‘Yep, Rose says they will take a while to warm up but we should be able to get to Kijimi in this baby.’ Poe was studying a readout, trying to make sense of it. ‘There’s a fault in the hyperdrive, is that right Threepio?’  
‘According to the computer,’ agreed the droid, sounding frustrated, ‘but I am not sure we can trust it, Sir…’  
‘Thanks,’ Poe was not interested in Threepio’s opinion; standing up he almost bumped into Rey, who was staring out the window towards the desert. ’Rey, you alright?’  
‘Er, yes,’ said the young woman, snapping out of her daydream. She was sure she had felt a familiar presence but there was no sign of him outside. ‘I found this, I wondered if Threepio might be able to translate it.’  
Pressing the switch, she replayed the message. They watched in silence, the figure’s voice and guttural language filling the cockpit with a sense of dread. When it finished, Threepio apologised and admitted that he could not translate it. ‘I believe that is one of the Sith languages, Mistress Rey. I do not have the software to be able to understand it, I’m afraid. With the demise of the Sith civilisation prior to the New Republic, no one expected me to require it.’  
When Rey looked disheartened, Poe patted her on the shoulder, ‘It’s okay. We can get it translated on Kijimi, along with that other message.’ He hoped that his contact was still there… and still alive.  
‘I wonder who it was talking to Ochi,’ mused Rey, gazing at the message cube. But something else was pulling at the edges of her consciousness, distracting her.  
Whilst Poe and Finn busied themselves with the necessary repairs to the ship, Rey left the cockpit and hurried outside, unable to shake the feeling that Kylo Ren was close by. The desert was quiet, only a solitary bird wheeled overhead, calling softly. She followed it with her eyes as it flew towards the cliffs on the opposite side of the plain.  
It was then that she saw them. Standing on the top of a plateau, taller than the one that she stood on, was a group of armoured figures, exuding menace even at this distance. She had seen them before, in her vision at Maz’s Castle, standing in the dark and the rain with Kylo Ren…. Master of the Knights of Ren… she remembered Snoke had called him that. Dressed in the same tattered and menacing armour, it would make sense that these were his knights. As she watched, she saw their heads turn to stare in her direction. Flinching, she put her hand on her lightsaber, but they made no move towards her, continuing to watch her from the clifftop.

‘Where’s Rey?’ asked Poe as he finished his rewiring job, glancing up from underneath the main console where he was crammed into the maintenance hatch.  
‘I think she went outside,’ said Finn, reaching out with the Force. After a moment or two, he found Rey’s familiar signature, although it was further away from the ship than he expected.  
‘Great timing,’ muttered Poe, he was hoping to have had her help. ‘You’ll have to do then - can you give me a hand with this panel?’

Outside, Rey had climbed down to the desert floor, hearing the whine of a ship’s engine coming from far away. Gazing at the horizon, she could just see the ship, a TIE fighter, speeding towards where she was standing. The pilot was either suicidal or over-confident, he or she was flying too close to the ground, almost scraping it, kicking up clouds of dust as it sped towards her.  
Rey stood her ground. She knew who it was.  
Patiently she waited as Kylo Ren’s ship grew larger and larger, the sound of the engine filling her head until it was almost unbearable. But still the TIE did not change course. Rey stood her ground refusing to move. Then, at the last minute, just as it seemed he was going to crash into her, Kylo Ren swerved drastically, executed a severely restricted, and difficult, turn just before he reached the cliffs, and landed the TIE fighter a short distance away from her. The hatch opened and Kylo climbed out, jumped to the ground and walked over to where she was waiting for him. For once, he looked every inch the Supreme Leader, his cloak billowing as he walked, his thick, wavy hair framing his face where the seriousness of his expression gave him gravity and dignity.  
‘Are you trying to impress me?’ Rey did not know whether to laugh or be angry with him. It was the first time she had been in his actual, real presence since they had been together in Snoke’s throne room. Like then, she felt a mixture of emotions - annoyance, anxiety but also the strange pull towards him that came from their connection in the Force.  
‘It didn’t work?’  
‘I’m not impressed that easily.’  
‘I’ll bear it in mind.’  
‘What are they for?’ she asked, gesturing to the Knights over on the far cliffs.  
‘They won’t hurt you’, he said, keeping his eyes on her, ‘they do as I command.’  
‘Glad to hear someone does,’ she smiled, and was surprised to see that even Kylo was amused, at least his eyes were.  
What he said next surprised her therefore. ’Rey, please - don’t go looking for the holocron.’  
‘What?’  
‘The Emperor’s holocron,’ he explained, gesturing up towards Ochi’s ship. ‘The one Luke was looking for.’  
‘Why?’ How did he know this?  
‘Palpatine lives.’  
The sky darkened and she shivered. ‘He can’t… how is it even possible?’  
‘His spirit is being kept alive by the Sith Eternals,’ Kylo went on, ‘they want to bring back the Empire.’  
She sensed there was something else to his visit, something which filled her with alarm. ‘He is your Master now?’  
‘The First Order will join with the Sith. He has a hold over me.’ His eyes betrayed his anguish. ‘He wants me to kill you.’  
Her heart sunk. ’Will you?’  
‘Will I what?’ He was exasperated by her lack of insight. If the Oracle, and even Palpatine, could recognise his feelings for her, why couldn’t she? Or was she refusing to acknowledge them, just as she had tried to suppress the memory of her parents?  
‘Kill me…’  
‘No!’ he said emphatically. ‘Rey, I…’  
From above, a few rocks trickled down from the cliffs. Both Kylo and Rey looked up to see Finn peering out from behind one of the weather-worn pillars of rock.  
’What’s he doing here?’ complained Kylo to Rey, glaring at Finn for his interruption.  
Finn pointed his blaster at the Supreme Leader. ‘Let her go,’ he shouted down. He could not believe that he had caught Rey talking to Kylo Ren for a second time, as before he felt a mixture of emotions emanating from them.  
Rey rolled her eyes. ‘I don’t need rescuing,’ she shouted back.  
Finn was confused. Although Rey had admitted to a complicated relationship with the Supreme Leader, he was surprised that Kylo Ren’s feelings were so transparent, particularly the deep affection that seeped out from the turbulence surrounding him, and centred upon her. It was as if he was in love with her… Finn shook his head, surely that was not possible? How could a monster like Kylo Ren feel love?  
With a start, Kylo Ren realised that his Knights had seen what was happening; they had headed down the cliffs and were now coming over the plains to give him their support. ‘Draw your lightsaber. Now!’ he said to Rey.  
‘What?’  
‘Attack me!’ Kylo said urgently, drawing his weapon to make it look like they were arguing, ‘Get him to shoot at me!’  
Understanding, Rey drew her lightsaber and shouted at Finn to attack. Confused even more, especially when Rey and Kylo Ren started fighting but with no real animosity, Finn aimed his blaster at the Supreme Leader, firing a few half-hearted shots that fizzled out harmlessly on the desert flats.  
‘They’re nearly here,’ hissed Kylo to Rey as the Knights advanced towards them, ’knock me over.’  
Summoning all her strength, she locked her lightsaber with his and pushed hard. For a moment he held it and looked deep into her eyes. With a start she saw the same vision she had seen in the jungle, Kylo Ren sitting on the jagged throne of the Sith, she sat next to him, holding his hand… Alarmed, she pushed with all her might against him, sending him sprawling onto the ground. In the process he dropped his lightsaber, and Rey kicked it away, sending it skittering across the sand.  
‘Come on,’ yelled Finn to Rey, hearing that Ochi’s ship was finally powering up, ‘They’re almost here!’  
Grasping for a handhold on the cliff, Rey glanced back one last time at Kylo, but he made no effort to move towards her, pretending that he was tangled up in his cloak. Turning back to the cliff face, she climbed up quickly, her feet scrabbling and slipping on the soft rock, but soon she had reached the top where Finn was waiting for her. As Kylo Ren got up to meet the Knights below them, they ran to the ship and stumbled inside, slamming the door shut.  
‘Let’s go!’ Finn shouted to Poe, who was waiting impatiently in the cockpit for them both to return.  
‘Finally!’ Poe powered up the ship and it streaked away just as Kylo and the Knights climbed to the top of the cliffs. The group of dark-clad warriors watched the ship impassively as it disappeared into the upper atmosphere, heading away from Pasaana.  
‘What was all that about?’ asked a very puzzled Finn , taking a seat next to Rey at the small table in the hold. But Rey was deep in thought and she ignored him.  
‘Hey,’ Finn tried again, ‘are you okay?’  
Rey snapped out of her funk, ‘Yes…. well no.’  
‘What’s going on with you and Ren?’ asked Finn, ‘what were you talking to him about?’  
Still trying to process what had happened, Rey did not mean to be evasive, ‘I… Ben has joined with the Sith - that’s what he needed the holocron for, to get to Exegol.’  
‘So now he’ll be twice as powerful,’ frowned Finn, ‘but why is he telling you this?’  
‘He doesn’t want me to go to Exegol.’  
‘That seems obvious,’ scoffed Finn, they were dealing with their enemy after all.  
‘No it’s not,’ she mused, scratching the back of her neck. ‘It’s not that he doesn’t want me to go, more that he wants to protect me from what’s there.’ That was the impression she got from their brief interaction, as well as his evident despair at becoming Palpatine’s effective slave. Why has he accepted it? she thought to herself. What did he mean by Palpatine having a ‘hold’ over him?  
‘When I saw you two together… ‘ Finn started, unsure how to explain what he meant, ‘I don’t know why but it seemed like he… he cared for you.’  
‘What do you mean?’ Although Rey had reached that conclusion herself, she was not sure what ‘cared’ meant in the context of her and Ben. It was a feeling that she was struggling with.  
‘I get a feeling that’s all,’ Finn said, embarrassed. It felt intrusive to be able to read other peoples’ feelings through the Force but that seemed to be one of the gifts it had granted him. ‘He showed no aggression towards you… conflict yes, but hatred, no. But it doesn’t make sense,’ Finn continued as he mulled it over. ‘Why would he care about you, unless…’ Reaching a conclusion, he looked at her with real concern, ‘Is he… is he in love with you?’  
‘I don’t know.’ It would help to explain some of his behaviour towards her - when he had patiently listened to her sorrows following her failure in the mirror cave, he had chosen her over Snoke, and had reached out to her after they had defeated the Praetorian guards. He had agreed to help guide her with her fears towards the dark side, before the stress of keeping secrets from each other had pushed them apart again. But Rey was too afraid to think too deeply about Ben’s feelings for her, because then she would have to confront the difficult task of working out her feelings for him.  
‘No… that can’t be it. It’s twisted,’ Finn shook his head, not wanting to confront the reality of his own conclusion either.  
She looked at him, wide-eyed, ‘Why?’  
‘He’s a monster,’ frowned Finn, the thought of Kylo Ren thinking about Rey in that way made him feel anxious and sick. ‘Creatures like that can’t love anyone. He’s lying - he must be. It’s a way to get you close so he can kill you.’  
‘He’s not going to kill me,’ replied Rey fervently, ‘he said so.’ Before she had got closer to Ben, she had thought the same as Finn. But she had come to understand that his relationship with the dark side was not the clearcut choice she had assumed it was.  
‘And you believe him?’ Finn looked at her with concern, what was going on in her head? Had she forgotten that Kylo Ren had tortured her, tortured Poe, killed his own father and almost murdered him? And that was ignoring all his other crimes as a member of the First Order.  
‘I do.’ Although she was not sure about all of his intentions towards her, she knew that he had no desire to end her life. Quite the opposite. There were plenty of times when he could have killed her - in the forest, in front of Snoke - but he had chosen not to. ‘Look Finn, whatever you think about Ben, the Force has connected us for a reason. It has an impact on both of us. He can’t just… wish me away.’ And by the same token, neither could she wish him away.  
Taking her hand, Finn pressed it tightly. ’You need to be careful, Rey, people like Kylo Ren they’re not.…’  
‘Can I get a little help back here?’ yelled Poe from the cockpit, interrupting Finn’s heartfelt message.  
‘What’s happening?’ asked Finn as he and Rey rushed into the cockpit, finding a scene of chaos. Poe in particular was starting to lose the plot a little; he and Rose were doing all they could to keep the ship on its present course but another connection had just started to fizzle and burn, and things were steadily going from bad to worse.  
‘Everything,’ said Poe tersely, indicating the disintegrating ship around him, ‘just fix what you can!’  
Thinking quickly, Rey rushed over to one of the consoles where another connection had just started to spit and fizz. She was glad for the distraction, the conversation with Finn had become more and more uncomfortable as she realised that she did not want to share all aspects of her connection with Ben with her friends. Especially her and Ben’s highly charged feelings for each other. She was going to have to start keeping things from them too.  
‘Will we get to Kijimi?’ asked Finn in concern as Rey was already delving into wires and checking circuits, ‘we’re not going to blow up?’  
‘Keep your fingers crossed,’ muttered Poe, pushing another lever as BB8 bleeped frantically at him, ‘Yeah, and them too!’


End file.
